The Ayurveda community is in its infancy in the United States. And like infants, new practitioners often need support to get their practices started, to walk on their own and become empowered to enjoy all that running a dharma business has to offer.
In the U.S., there seems to be a perception that a large number of new practitioners (3 or fewer years in practice) feel the gap between themselves and the smaller number of seasoned practitioners (10+ years in practice).
Some believe that this is due to practitioner burnout. With any business, there comes a time to close down or dig deeper to find a way through. Either way might be the right choice for the individual and what remains is the sense of a gap in the overall community.
I was speaking to an emerging practitioner recently who mentioned how great it would be to have a resource for feedback on cases. A way to ask questions like, “am I on the right track?” and “am I missing anything?” and trust the experience of a seasoned practitioner to provide guidance.
When you are starting out, it can feel a bit daunting to be on your own in a practice, wanting to really to provide well-founded support for others. Sometimes, there may be doubts about your level of competency, as in asking yourself, “do I have the skill level necessary to meet my client’s needs?”
So naturally, to have access to someone with experience whom with you can check in, a mentor of sorts, is a particularly beautiful way to share knowledge and lift the spirits and capability of the community from the inside.
Some emerging practitioners are getting support in this way from past teachers — which is amazing and wonderful. However, not everyone has that connection or is even offered the possibility. Perhaps, there is only so much our former Ayurveda teachers can do.
And, of course, there are other potential mentors — seasoned practitioners, in the U.S. and elsewhere, who could provide some tips for tracking with clients properly and including more or less of what comes in the first draft of a client plan.
At the same time, there are always others who are emerging, in the same situation that you may be in. What is clear to me is that in any group setting, often the answers one person needs exist within another.
Group intelligence is another kind of possible support. It’s different because it may be less based on seasoned experience and more on recent academic study and some foundational experience. Nonetheless, support is support and it makes a difference.
The question is, how?
What do you feel in reading these questions?
Having an apprenticeship structure in place sounds like it would be amazing. It almost doesn’t matter what form the communication takes. If I had someone I could run questions by and get reliable feedback from on an ongoing basis that would be great!